In his recent best-selling book on the stock market crash, titled simply “1929,” New York Times business writer Andrew Ross Sorkin offers an up-close look at the events and people whose lives got caught up in, and in some cases were blamed for, the Great Depression. Andrew W. Mellon was one of those figures.
Hailed in the 1920s as “the greatest secretary of the treasury since Alexander Hamilton,” Mellon was excoriated later as among one of the “malefactors of great wealth” who by a combination of greed and misjudgment had brought on the financial disaster. President Hoover had already decided to reappoint Mellon as the secretary of the treasury, a post both his Republican predecessors Harding and Coolidge had made.
Mellon had been actively involved in various industries such as banking, oil, and aluminum, building an impressive business empire. He was also a key figure in Pennsylvania and national Republican party politics back into the 19th century.
When the stock market crash of 1929 occurred, Mellon, along with Hoover, was blamed for the economic depression that followed. He later served as an ambassador and eventually retired from government service in 1933 due to health issues.
Despite his controversial legacy, Mellon decided to make a final gift to the nation by establishing a national art museum and donating his art collection, leading to the creation of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
